Public Works Department was
formally established in the year 1854 in the sixth year of Lord Dalhousie’s tenure
as Governor General. In the minutes of meeting held on 12th July, 1854 the Governor
General resolve that a central agency be provided by creating an office of Secretary
to the Government of India in Department of Public Works. The note recorded by Lord
Dalhousie was as under:

“The organization of the Department of Public Works in the
Indian Empire will be incomplete unless it shall be provided for the Supreme
Government itself come agency by which it may be enabled to exercise the universal
control confided to it over public works in India with the best of scientific knowledge
with authority and system. The Government of India shall no longer be dependent
on expedients, but should be provided with a permanent and highly qualified agency
to assist in the direction of this important branch of public affairs. I have,
therefore, now to propose that such an agency should be provided by creating an
office of the Secretary to Government of India in the Department of Public Works.
The person who holds it should always be a highly qualified officer of the Corps
of Engineers. He should have the aid of an Assistant Secretary, also an officer
of the Corps of Engineers. His salary I think should not be less than that of the
Secretary to the Government of Bangal, namely Rs.3,000 per month and the salary of the
Assistant should not be less than that of the Assistant Secretary in Military Department”

Colonel W.E.Baker of the Bengal Engineers was accordingly appointed first Secretary
to the Department of Public Works, this is the genesis of the Central Public Works
Department.